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Perks Of Being A Wallflower Coming Of Age Essay

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The second similar theme between the two books is coming of age. Coming of age is about growing up and finding out more about yourself and the world, and how its not always fair. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the book beings with Charlie staring high school, he is an outcast, a wallflower, he does not join in on conversations but choose to sit back and observe. He is grieving about many things, the friend he just lost due to suicide, his aunt who had a rough childhood and died in a car crash and Charlie thought it was his fault she died, and his sister who is in a bad relationship but he can’t help her. He doesn’t understand the world and is considered innocent because he does not know most things that everyone else knows such as relationships, …show more content…

He realizes that his sister’s boyfriend is hurting his sister, and he has his first kiss with a boy and a girl. He learns the truth about his Aunt, she had a though life and didn’t make good choices, which led to her molesting Charlie every Saturday when they were alone. Charlie had kept quiet about all the things in his life when he was younger but that just made the events worse, by opening up and experiencing new things Charlie learns about the world. The best quote that shows the theme of coming of age in the book is, “Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.” (Chbosky, 17) This quote was told to Charlie from his teacher, after Charlie tells him about his sister and her boyfriend. This quote explains in itself what its like as you grow up. You fall in love many times before you find the right one. With all these loves, you believe they are the one, even if you go through bad times with them and that’s why you didn’t leave a bad relationship. However, when you grow older and look back on all your lovers, you realize you only stayed with them because you thought you deserved that love, but when you reach a responsible mature age you realize that you didn’t need those people, you just thought you did and it was all up to you to leave the

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